89
Mrs Bunny Tait

Outward appearance

Perhaps Italian? Calm, beautiful, in a Virgin Mary way, perhaps 35. Tan slacks, shoes that appear to be made of varnished straw. Stares unmoving as Mind the Gap unfolds around her.

Inside information

Canadian stage manager, part Amerindian. Works in MtG for pin money (if that). Introduced Passenger 96 to the troupe. Her husband Julian is an actor at the National, but only gets walk-on parts. His biggest role was masked in a production of the Oresteia which was known to use actors normally too ugly to take lead roles. Julian is a lovely man, kind, wise, but now increasingly depressed, haunting their flat, tending the allotment.

What she is doing or thinking

She watches distracted as the routine goes wrong. Geoff's inexperience somehow covers for it. Bunny is more concerned with trying to think of some way to make money. Her friend Judith takes people on London walks, but then Judith has been studying London for years. The Japanese had a new plan to start exporting their art and culture. Maybe she could bone up on their theatre or something, start an agency.

The woman next to her is saying "... they'll stop giving actors benefit, and you'll have to work for a living."

It's like the entire country is shrinking. When Bunny arrived in 1978, London's theatres roared, and there were punks and subsidy and yes, the DHSS.

As an Indian, Bunny has the right to live in either America or Canada. She thinks of Julian, whose rich voice would be perfect for radio, the thousands of American radio stations.